Hard shoulder pilot 'a success'

Ruth Kelly is set to extend a scheme which allows motorists to drive on the hard shoulder during peak travel periods.

The transport secretary was on Thursday announcing the results of a trial of the initiative which has taken place on a stretch of motorway in the West Midlands since September 2006.

A poll of motorists driving on the hard shoulder during the rush hours found that 84 per cent expressed confidence in the scheme.

Talking to BBC Breakfast, Kelly said: "What I am doing is looking at where road widening makes sense, beyond that where perhaps we could use sophisticated technology to manage traffic better or use the hard shoulder... or indeed what the potential of road-pricing is for the future."

During the pilot scheme sensors located on the M42 were used to assess the level of traffic. When the stretch of road was congested then overhead gantries instructed motorists to begin using the hard shoulder.

During these times, a 50mph speed limit was introduced and any cars breaking down were able to access 'refuge areas' where an alarm would alert a control room and help would be sent.

It is thought that the success of the pilot scheme could pave the way for similar hard shoulder usage on Britain's most congested motorways, such as the M1 and M25.

"I think there will always be a need for road widening where there is a huge and severe congestion problem because in those situations you just need to maximise the number of cars that can drive on a particular stretch of road," said Kelly.

"But what I am doing today is asking the question are there bits of the network, and it could be bits of the M1 or parts of the M6 for instance, where an active traffic management approach... might not be a better way to get more people to use the motorway network and improve how reliable their journey times are."